Conservation research on Panay [Philippines]: key facts of preliminary surveys

The project has a two-pronged approach: one, it conducts basic faunal and ecological research on birds and mammals, and two, it is engaged in community-based conservation efforts. It has been operating in Negros [Philippines] in 1995 and 1996, yet recently focused on an area within Northwest-Panay peninsula (municipalities of Libertad, Pandan, Antique province; and Buruanga, Nabas, Malay, Aklan province, Region 6). According to extensive surveys, it harbours the last relatively significant tract of low elevation forest of the entire West Visayan zoogeographic region (i.e. Cebu, Guimaras, Masbate, Negros, Panay and Ticao). The area comprises an estimated 2,500 to 5,000 hectares of old growth forest (including tall dipterocarp, limestone, sub-montane, and bamboo forest types), ranging in elevation from 200 m to 915 m. The forested mountains constitute some of the last relatively intact watershed systems in the region. Remnant populations of critically-endangered Visayan spotted deer Cervus alfredi and Visayan warty pig Sus cebifrons are present in the forest area, with the latter for more numerous. Four of sixteen critically endangered Philippine endemic bird species have been recorded, all of which are West Visayan endemics: writhedbilled hornbill Aceros waldeni, Visayan tarictic hornbill Penelopides panini bleeding-heart pigeon Gallicolumba sp. (Keayi? new Panay record), white-throated jungle-flycatcher Phinomylas albigularis (new Panay record). Further threathened bird species recorded and green-faced parrotfinch Erythrura viridifacies (new Panay record), blue-naped parrot (Tanygnathus lucionensis, and white-winged cuckoo-shrike Coracina ostenta. Research on NW-Panay peninsula (1996 and 1997) and at Hamtang Forest west of Mt. Baloy in the Central Panay mountains (1995 and 1996), led to the discovery of a new record of 23 birds and 5 mammals for Panay. Within and surrounding the Hamtang Forest, around 30 nests of two hornbill species were found in 1995 and 1996. Only one writhed-billed A. waldeni was identified in 1995 and two were identified in 1996. The proportion of breeding pairs was estimated to be 1:15 to 1:30 (A. waldeni: P. panini) which seems to be confirmed by the number of sight records at lower-lying study site in NW-Panay. According to locals, density of A. waldeni in this area is down to 10 percent due to hunting pressure. Based on this preliminary survey data and the distribution of forest remnants on Negros and Panay, the extrapolated global wild population of A. waldeni may be as low as 50-80 pairs. The largest single population (ca. 30-40 pairs) should possibly reside in the Central Panay mountains, harboring the largest forest tract of the West Visayas. In the wild, writhed-billed hornbills are facing almost certain extinction in the very near future if poaching cannot be effectively controlled. The entire forest area of NW-Panay peninsula is included in two mining sites with applications pending with the Mines and Geosciences Bureau: Quarry Ventures Inc. and Teresa Marble Mining. Furthermore, all over the remaining forests of Panay, timber poaching, extensive hunting, and conversion of forest into kaingin are rampant. Immediate declaration and implemetation of the proposed protected area status for both the Central Panay mountains and the NW-Panay peninsula are required for any of these forests to survive the coming five to ten years